Hasta La Ideas

Here are some wintery views of the new spotty stadium for Belarusian football club FC BATE Borisov designed by Slovenian firm OFIS Arhitekti, which is nearing completion and looks set to open later this year (+ slideshow).

The new Borisov Arena will replace FC BATE Borisov‘s existing home stadium, providing up to 13,000 seats for spectators on a new site to the south of the city centre.

OFIS Arhitekti designed the building with a domed shape, intended to resemble “fabric stretched over a skeleton”. The outer walls are clad with shimmering aluminium panels and are punctured by an assortment of blob-shaped windows.

Shops, bars and other visitor facilities will be located behind the facade at ground level, while staff offices, press rooms and VIP areas will occupy the level above.

The rounded shape of the arena is expected to improve acoustics during both training and matches.

Here’s a project description from OFIS Arhitekti:

Football Stadium Arena Borisov

The concept takes into account the natural advantages of the location and the existing interventions within the terrain, while maintaining as many of the existing trees on site as possible. Besides 13,000 seats there is additional 3,000 m2 of public space and are classified 4 stars according to UEFA categorisation. Traffic and parking is organised between the forest.

The arena forms a unified rounded dome, giving the impression of a single enclosed object. The skin of the dome gives an impression of a fragile stretched perforated textile pulled over the stadium skeleton. The covered space between the skin and the tribunes is a public street – a vestibule with public program (shops, bars, services, toilets) and galleries above (offices, VIP, press)

Internally, the rounded arena provides good acoustics and encourages an extrovert atmosphere from the players and the fans alike during the game, but focuses concentration during training time. The playing surface has N-S orientation, with a total area of 85 x 105m, on which 68 x 105m is used for playing. The remaining area allows enough space for the installation of advertising screens, photographers and cameras. The seats are arranged around the playing field in rows of 17 along the sides and rows of 27-28 along the short sides. The upper west gallery is reserved for press cabins, with seats and tables for 40 journalists and direct stair access to the press room and mix zone. In the east are the VIP stands, with 250 seats and bar and entertainment spaces. The VIP is accessed directly via an elevator from the entrance area with a car driveway. The athletes have a separate access on the lower platform, with passage to team buses and parking. At each entry point to the field are two dressing rooms, mix zone, physiotherapy and a space for doping control.

There are 4 floors with extra program and service facilities under the west stand area and 3 floors under the east side. The foyer for visitors is located on the first floor level and has 4 stairway access points. It is a covered plateau, naturally ventilated and unheated. Extending all around the inner stadium arena, this space contains the visitor’s toilets, bars, first-aid room and detention: it is a place to break during half-time. 3.000 m2 of public program is distributed at ground level on the north, south and east ends of the structure. In the east, a restaurant and bowling area are located. The restaurant prepares meals for the VIP during the match, with a service elevator for catering to the VIP lounge and bar within its public foyer. In the south, there are public fitness/gym studios. Other public area spaces are designed for various commercial activities. All restaurants have access from the public platform. Around the platform is a rounded pedestrian square, as a peripheral roundabout and meeting area. Parking pockets are organized into the existing forest area.

Architect: OFIS Arhitekti
Engineering and local office: Magnus Group
Client: FC Bate, County of Borisov

Location: Borisov, Belarus
Status: commission 2010
Construction 2011
Completion 2014
Program: football stadium + public program
Type: public + private
Area: public program 3,628 m2, offices 480 m2, service 2,000 m2
Capacity: audience 13,000 seats, VIP 620 seats, press seats 100, parking spaces 800
Structure: steel, reinforced concrete; roof structure- metal beams with aluminium cladding

The post OFIS Arhitekti’s spotty stadium for
FC BATE Borisov nears completion appeared first on Dezeen.

A conceptual space station that was conceived in the 1920s inspired the spiralling structure of this culture and technology centre in Slovenia.

OFIS Arhitekti teamed up with Slovenian studios Sadar Vuga Arhitekti, Bevk Perovic Arhitekti and Dekleva Gregoric Arhitekti to design the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies, which functions as a visitor facility for a nearby cultural centre in the small town of Vitanje.

Referred to as the Space Habitable Wheel, the building’s form is derived from the space station that rocket engineer and local resident Herman Potocnik Noordung described in his 1929 book, The Problem of Space Travel.

The architects replicated the looping structure of Noordung’s design using a series of interlocking rings. They explain: “The rotating habitable wheel, a circular construction setting up artificial gravity with the centrifugal force, is the best and at the same time a simple solution for long-term human habitation of weightlessness.”

A ramp curls around the edge of the building, providing a sloping exhibition area that connects the ground floor hall with an auditorium and space technology research centre on the level above.

From the exterior, the building appears as a pair of tangled cylinders, hovering over two glazed entrance facades.

“There is a dynamic effect between the cylinders, accentuated by the full glass rings around the building,” explain the architects. “The building appears to float and rotate on its southern and western sides towards the road.”

Both rings are made from concrete and are clad with a screen of shimmering metal panels.

We first revealed images of the design in 2011, when construction started on the project.

See more architecture by OFIS Arhitekti, or see more projects by Bevk Perovic Arhitekti.

Photography is by Tomaž Gregorič.

Here’s some more information from OFIS Arhitekti:

The Cultural Center of European Space Technologies (KSEVT) will supplement the cultural and social activities of the Arts Center in Vitanje, the town in Slovenia that was home to Herman Potocnik Noordung, the first theoretician of space.

The concept design for the building of the KSEVT derives from the habitation wheel of the first geostationary space station described in Noordung’s 1929 book. It will have a public significance and generate social, cultural, and scientific activities, with fixed and temporary exhibitions, conferences and club/study activities.

Noordnung’s space station was designed as a geostationary satellite out of three parts: a solar power station, an observatory and a habitable wheel. After several decades of ponderings on the habitation of space, this idea remains to be the most revolutionary, yet not realized. The rotating habitable wheel, a circular construction setting up artificial gravity with the centrifugal force, is the best and at the same time a simple solution for long-term human habitation of weightlessness. Since we are not accustomed to that kind of condition, it exerts negative influence upon our body in the long run. A station in this orbit could also represent a perfect point of departure for longer spaceflights, considering that the Earth’s force of attraction is still the greatest obstacle for that.

The building is a monolithic concrete structure, positioned freely between a main road on one side and a stream with a green hinterland on the other. The exterior and interior of the building are made of two low cylinders. The bottom one is larger and rises from the North to the South, while the upper cylinder is smaller and joins the larger one on the south while rising to the North. The bottom cylinder is supported by the transparent surface of the entrance glazing.

From the exterior, there is a dynamic effect between the cylinders, accentuated by the full glass rings around the building. The building appears to float and rotate on its southern and western sides towards the road. The entrenchment of the building into the surface on the other side gives a connection to its immediate surroundings. The spatial effects give the building the effect of artificial gravity from floatation and rotation. The building has two entrances- a main one to the central space from the square in front of the building on the south-eastern side and the northern entrance from the gravel surface above the stream.

The main entrance covers the overhanging part of the bottom cylinder: one passes through a tight space past a circular vestibule and into the interior of the hall. The vestibule can be separated from the activities in the hall by a curtain. The entrance glazing can be completely opened and can connect the activities in the hall with the square. The circular hall for 300 people is surrounded on both sides by a semicircular ramp. This denotes the beginning of the exhibition area, continuing from here to the overhanging part of the larger cylinder.

On the west, there are smaller office areas along the ramp. Ascending this ramp also represents a transition from the bright space of the hall to the dark exhibition area. The vertical connection with a staircase and large elevator connects the exhibition area directly to the vestibule of the hall. The exhibition space continues through the landing between the elevator and the staircase to the smaller cylinder, the multi-purpose hall, and a raised auditorium above the hall. From here, one can observe the activity below. The smaller cylinder is concluded at the highest, northernmost portion with a club area devoted to researchers of the history of space technology, where they can focus on their work aside from the activities below.

Besides special programme and location also collaboration of four architectural offices in developing the project is unique. The idea of collaboration raised on the first meeting where investor invited the four offices to collaborate on internal competition – and office principals decided to actually rather do the project together. The idea concepts came out on serious of workshops, later project was shared in different stages of development between all offices.

Location: Cesta na vasi, Vitanje, Slovenia
Project start: 2009
Construction start: 2009
Completed: 2012

Above: diagram of the space station by Herman Potocnik Noordung

Program: exhibition spaces, library, offices, multi-purpose hall, auditorium
Type: space technology community centre
Client: KSEVT, Vitanje Community and Ministry of Culture, Slovenia
Area: site 33.305 m2
Total floor area: 2.450 m2
Materials: concrete, glass, aluminium

Above: site plan

Above: basement plan – click above for larger image

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: second floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: roof plan

Above: section one

Above: section two

The post Space Habitable Wheel by OFIS, Sadar Vuga,
Bevk Perovic and Dekleva Gregoric appeared first on Dezeen.

Earlier this year Slovenian firm OFIS Arhitekti transformed three Baroque houses in Ljubljana into an apartment block with a secret courtyard, which is featured in this third movie from our series about the studio’s work.

Located in the city’s historic centre, the three buildings had most recently been used as the offices and bookshop of a publishing company, before OFIS Arhitekti were brought on to combine the spaces and create twelve new apartments.

Providing daylight for each apartment proved difficult so the architects added glass elevations around the existing courtyard, which they then converted from a storage area for air conditioning units into a small garden for residents.

“Since the court is very narrow and enclosed from all sides, the main concern was to provide as much light as possible to become a form of internal garden,” said the architects.

Behind the glass, rows of arches with stone pillars provide traces of the original architecture, while the street-facing elevations are restored to their original condition.

The movie was produced by Carniolus and follows one about an Alpine holiday hut and another about a social housing block inspired by hayracks.

Other projects by OFIS Arhitekti on Dezeen include student housing inspired by wooden baskets and an apartment with staggered floors.

See all our stories about OFIS Arhitekti »

Photography is by Tomaz Gregoric and Jan Celeda.

Above: level 1 plan – click above to see larger image

Above: level 2 plan – click above to see larger image

Above: attic level 1 plan – click above to see larger image

Above: attic level 2 plan – click above to see larger image

Above: north section – click above to see larger image

Above: south section – click above to see larger image

Above: east section – click above to see larger image

Above: west section – click above to see larger image

Above: sun diagram – click above to see larger image

The post Movie: Baroque Court Apartments
by OFIS Arhitekti appeared first on Dezeen.

Film studio Carniolus has produced a series of movies to document the architecture of Slovenian practice OFIS Arhitekti and the first gives a tour of the 6×11 Alpine Hut, a holiday home in Slovenia’s Triglav National Park.

Completed in 2009, the house was designed by OFIS Arhitekti in line with a set of plans for a traditional Slovenian hut that had already been granted permission on the site. The architects designed a contemporary version with the same dimensions, roof pitch and materials, meaning a new construction permit was not required.

The house is used as an alpine retreat for a family, so the architects added three bedrooms and a sauna on the top floor, as well as a large living and dining room on the ground floor that opens out to a sheltered veranda.

See more photographs of 6×11 Alpine Hut in our earlier story.

See all our stories about OFIS Arhitekti »

Photography is by Tomaz Gregoric.

The post Movie: 6×11 Alpine Hut
by OFIS Arhitekti appeared first on Dezeen.

Slovenian firm OFIS Arhitekti have created an apartment in Ljubljana where rooms are separated by staggered floors rather than walls, with storage areas located underneath.

The architects removed almost all of the original partitions to create an open-plan layout where only structural walls remain.

Original doors have been retained wherever possible, although one now functions as the back of a bathroom shelving cabinet.

See more projects by OFIS Arhitekti here, including a scaly apartment block with triangular balconies.

Photography is by Tomaz Gregoric and Jan Celeda.

Below is a longer description from OFIS Arhitekti:

Level apartment … inside Art Nouveau palace
2012_Ljubljana, Slovenia

The project is the renovation of an apartment contained within an art nouveau building originally designed and built in 1902 (architect C.M. Koch).

The building is a 5 floor residential block in the centre of Ljubljana overlooking a square surrounded by residential and mixed use buildings.

The original layout consisted of multiple rooms which creating an enclosed feeling within the apartment, the brief required a more open plan layout however with the different uses within the space clearly defined.

Many of the existing partitions were removed to create a more continuous space, leaving only the main structural walls to break the space up creating a constant circulation around the apartment and giving the feeling of a single entity broken by only a few elements.

Instead of using walls to define the uses, levels within the floor were created so that the open plan could be kept however a change in use inside the space was signified by a change in elevation.

Furthermore, storage and furniture were combined with the floors and walls to further add to the delineation of space, giving a more evident use to each space.

By designing the furniture to be contained within the walls and floor, using similar materials enforces the idea of creating separate purposeful spaces whilst generating a feeling that they are all connected and can be viewed as a single entity.

Storage throughout the apartment is achieved using a repeated element, creating hidden storage whenever the floor level is elevated, meaning the steps leading up to the sleeping level or shower level for example are not used solely as circulation but as storage also.

Hiding the majority of the storage means that a continuity of space and materials is kept which adds to the feeling of an un-interrupted space.

Location: Ljubljana historical City Centre

Type: Residential apartment

Client: private

Click above for larger image

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Renovation Area: 115 m2

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Project team:
OFIS arhitekti: Rok Oman, Spela Videcnik, Andrej Gregoric, Janez Martincic, Janja Del Linz, William Gibson, Estefania Lopez Tornay, Nika Zufic

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image